Happy Friday! It's Lauren here from Lauren's Creative! I am so thrilled that Monique and Wendy invited me to design a project for their blog today! They have both provided me with endless amounts of inspiration. I have only been scrapbooking for a little over a year and since finding Monique and Wendy's blogs - my scrapbook layouts have improved 110%. I could gush about them a little more, but I don't want to "fan-girl" them too much and freak them out. :)

For today's project they asked me to design a Breast Cancer Awareness themed project, and I immediately decided to come up with a layout with a "Race for the Cure" theme. I know many of you participate every year and I'm sure you have some beautiful pictures that you'd like to display in a special way!

If you prefer single page layouts, I think this page would make an adorable layout in and of itself. I would probably just add a journaling space in between the runners. I used the Pink Journey cartridge for the runners and the ribbon cuts, but even if you don't have that cartridge don't let that stop you from "scrap-lifting" this...there are similar runner silhouettes found on the Sports Mania cartridge. There are also similar ribbons on the Car Decals cartridge as well as Stand and Salute.

I really wanted the runners to look like they were carrying the banner, so to achieve that look - I simply attached a glue dot to the top of a toothpick, so the baker's twine wouldn't come unraveled. I then wrapped the baker's twine around the toothpick a few more times and knotted it off. To create the streamers, I just tied another length of baker's twine around the end. I then secured them to the runners' hands by attaching another glue dot.

The second page is pretty simple - I really wanted the pictures to be the focus. It is a little hard to tell, but the middle picture is actually attached using pop dots to give a little more dimension to the page.

Thank you so much again to Monique and Wendy for having me!

I hope that if you like this project, some of you might come visit me on my blog - Lauren's Creative. If you have any questions about this layout - please don't hesitate to email me. (My contact information is on my site.)

Just a quick post tonight to let you all know that Provo Craft has launched an official Cricut blog! It looks pretty awesome, and sounds like they're going to keep it active with tons of great stuff going on. There was even a video of Jinger Adams showing her gorgeous craft room. Be sure to go check it out here: http://cricutblog.org/ and become a follower for chances to win shopping credit on cricut.com.

Hello! I hope you are having a good week. I wanted to share my first E2 project. I only played with it a day and was having a little trouble with my title so I used the same words but with a different cart. Promise that I will get it mastered...

I sure hope you are all off to a good start this week. The oh-so-super-talented Becca Rees happens to have a wonderful start to the week. She and her hubby and kiddos just moved in to their brand new house that they have been waiting about 9 months for, and it's beautiful! Plus it's only about 4 houses down and around the corner from my house! And speaking of beautiful, Becca just designed this gorgeous new Princess layout, which is available as a kit. See below for details.

The Princess layout kit will be ready to ship out by May 31st. To order, just visit ourCricut Kits page, and you can use our new shopping cart. It'll be ready the same time the Disney Autograph album will be ready, so take advantage of combined shipping!

The kit will include all of the papers, cardstock and ribbon that you'll need to complete the layout. Plus you'll get detailed directions with Cricut Cut Chart and plenty of color photographs.

The complete kit with directions is $25, and you can order it from ourCricut Kitspage. If you'd like to purchase just the directions for $10, you can check back by May 31st, and then purchase and download the directions automatically at that time.

If you have any questions, you can reach me at moniquegriffith@yahoo.com. And don't forget to leave a comment on today's post for another chance at this week's blog candy - the Echo Park "Splash" paper collection. It just arrived today, and it's even yummier in person!!

Happy Monday!! (Is that a contradiction of terms?) As promised, we've got new blog candy for a new week. Who would like to win the very brand new "Splash" paper pack by Echo Park? Just leave a comment on today's post, and then come back each day this week for more chances.

Also as promised, we are releasing a new kit today. The Bling Queen - Wendy Lawrence - designed this masterpiece - it's a Disney Autograph Book!!!! How cool is that? Fun AND useful!!! In fact, my hubby and I decided just yesterday that we're going to take our little Emily to Disneyland this summer, so I will be signing up for this kit right away. The rest of you will have to get in line, LOL! (It'll be ready to ship by May 31st.)

To order this kit, or any of our other kits, just go to ourCricut Kitspage and use our handy-dandy new shopping cart. You can pay with PayPal or Google checkout, and it combines shipping and calculates your postage based on where you live. It's been working very nicely! Plus we'll be featuring one more new kit tomorrow, and it's already listed in the shopping cart, so you can see it and order it along with this Disney Book.

This colorful Disney album will work perfectly for pictures of you or your kiddos with all of your favorite characters - plus space for the characters to sign the page! There are beautifully detailed pages with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, Daisy and Donald Duck. You could even use this for a past trip by just transplanting the autographs and adding your pictures.

This kit will include the album that you'll get to decorate yourself and 6x6 chipboard page inserts, plus all of the patterned papers, cardstock, ribbon, brads and twine that you'll need to complete the project. You'll also get our detailed yet easy to follow directions with Cricut Cut Chart, well-organized written instructions, and plenty of color photographs.

This complete kit is $30, and will be ready to ship out May 31st. You can pre-order it now on our Cricut Kitspage. Or you can purchase the directions only for $10. To purchase directions only, just check back on ourCricut Kitspage by May 31st, and you'll be able to pay for the directions and download them automatically at the same time. If you have any questions at all, you can always reach me at moniquegriffith@yahoo.com.

It's a beautiful, rainy Sunday afternoon here, and I hope you're all doing well. It's time to announce the winner of the custom-embroidered Gypsy Tote bag. Are ya ready? Here's our winner...

coolnana72 said...

What a cute layout! You are so talented

Please email me at moniquegriffith@yahoo.com to claim your fabulous prize, and let me know what you'd like it to say. A huge thanks to Myrel France for sponsoring this giveaway! And for the rest of you who are now sad that you didn't win, you can order your own!! Just email Myrel at myrelf@aol.com. She does incredible work!!

By the way, I have not yet heard from either of the 2 winners of the quarter Circle membership. You have until May 17th to contact me, and then I must pass them on to somebody else. So I sure hope you see this. Those 2 winners of the Circle membership are...

katieosaid...

Inspiring photos. Your team look so happy and enthusiastic. I am glad it wasn't too hot. Thanks for the opportunity to win.

Nhi P. Tran said...

I would totally love to join the cricut circle. Those flowers were very lovely.

Be sure to come back tomorrow. We'll have new blog candy AND a wonderful new Disney-themed project kit by Wendy. Oooooh, trust me - it's CUTE and useful too!! And it's limited in numbers, so based on how our other Disney kits have sold, I don't think this will last long at all. (I'm gonna buy one myself, so y'all will have to get in line.)

Can you believe it's Saturday already? Where did this week go??? Well, it's my Saturday as Guest Designer on Everyday Cricut, so if you're coming from there, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to look around the blog here. You can also leave a comment on today's post for a chance to win a custom-embroidered Gypsy tote bag. If you haven't been to Everyday Cricut yet, be sure to pop on over there! Also, I want to give a huge thank you to Emma for being our Guest Designer here yesterday. Didn't she do an amazing job? Thanks, Emma!!

Alrighty, who has gotten the new Cricut Expression 2 yet??? I just got mine 2 days ago, and finally took it for a spin today. Well, I must confess that first I got my super smart hubby to do the update for me, and THEN I dove in. I actually read through the entire user manual, while trying out each function. Yes, I'm a nerd. But I feel pretty comfortable with it now, and really love it. So today I decided that I'd like to make a project using only the E2 and the carts that are pre-loaded into it. Here it is. See below for sizing details...

This single page 12x12 layout was made using mostly papers from Echo Park's "Playground" line (plus a couple of solids from Stampin' Up). I am a HUGE Echo Park fan - their papers are wonderful to design with! I used the Cricut Essentials cartridge to cut the navy blue "merry-go-round" wheel at 9 1/2". The orange circle behind it is 10", and the white circle behind that is 10 1/4". The cut isn't really meant to be a merry-go-round, but I thought it kinda looked like one and went with the paper and theme. I also cut the arrows from Cricut Essentials, all at 3", including the white shadows.

The "Play Time" title is cut at 3 1/4" from the Just a Note cartridge, and this is the cartridge I was most excited to start playing with. I think it's just adorable - and it also has THE cutest tri-fold cards on it - can't wait to try those out!! I like that the "Play Time" title has so many layers and a nice shadow - that really helped me tie in a lot of the colors from the layout. And of course I added a few buttons for a little extra cuteness.

This bear and slide are also from Just a Note, and it's cut at 4 1/2". Again, lots of great layers (I'm all about the details!!), and a nice shadow as well. Since there's so much color going on in this layout, the white shadows really help separate them visually. I added faux stitching in both white and black, and some little polka dots as well.

I don't use arrows too often (don't know why that is - they're so cool!!), but in this case, I really think they helped give the scene a sense of motion and fun. Oh, and I used a double layer of pop dots to pop up the navy blue merry-go-round cut to give it extra depth.

The photo mat sizes are as follows: Merry-go-round pattern is 4 1/4" x 6 1/4". Red solid mat is 4 1/2" x 6 1/2". Light blue mat is 5" x 7". All layers are inked with dark blue chalk ink (as are the other Cricut cuts in this project). I tucked the photo mat into the navy merry-go-round wheel, again to just add more depth and to help tie everything together. Thanks for coming over to play today, and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance at this week's blog candy!!! Enjoy your weekend!

Good morning! All I have to say is "FINALLY"!!! I've been trying to do this post since yesterday afternoon! I apologize for this being so late:( Okay! First of all, my name is Emma w/My Creative Time & I would like to thank Miss Wendy & Miss Monique for giving me this FABULOUS opportunity to be a "Guest Designer" here! THANK YOU LADIES, I truly feel honored!;) I was asked to do a project "Breast Cancer" related, so this is what I came up with! I decided to do this 8x8 layout~ which I LOVE to do rather that a 12x12! I do like 12x12 layouts, BUT, if I had a choice, it will mostly be an 8x8! I used 3 different carts for this! "Stand & Solute", "Lacy Labels" & "George & Basic Shapes"! Below you can see how I layed it out in my "Gypsy Girl"!;)

This is how I designed it in my "Gypsy Girl"!﻿ Sorry the picture isn't very good:( Basically, this is how I came up w/my design. I got a square from "George Cart" & made it 8x8, used the border feature on "Stand & Salute" cart for my Adorable ribbons! I actually weldine 2 sets of ribbons together & they are sized at 1.32! Of course, if you are not a Gyspy owner, you can either size them at 1.25 or 1.50, it depends on what size layout you choose to go with! For the frame, where the picture goes~ I used "Lacy Labels" cart. There are 2, one is sized at 3.75 & I shadowed it w/another one sized at 4.0! After everything was cut out, then I decided it need those CUTE flowers! Those are a die set from Papertrey Ink & they come in a set of 3 different sizes! I thought they were PERFECT for my sentiments! For the base of my layout, I used an 8x8 paper pad made from Colorbok called "Fleamarket"! What a CUTE stack, I found this at my Joann's & it was PERFECT for this particular project. I was able to use this background paper as journaling paper as well! The paper for the flowers are from stampin up, the ribbons I used Rasberry Fizz cardstock from Papertrey Ink & the frames, the white & kraft cardstock are ALSO from Papertrey Ink! EVERY SINGLE SENTIMENT I used were all from my stamp set called "Race For A Cure" This is a VERY special set I designed & it's definitely my FAVORITE by far! By purchasing this set, you are partnering w/My Creative Time to help "Stamp Out" breast cancer. For each set that is purchased, My Creative Time will donate $2 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure!

In honor of this "Special Cause" I decided to do a special "Pink" giveaway here! All you would have to do is leave a comment here & a way for me to contact you & I will pick ONE "LUCKY" winner to win this cute pink tool kit for your cricut projects, my "Race for a cure" stamp set & a set of CUTE PINK acrylic blocks!

ALSO, for another "9" chances to win this AWESOME "Pink" prize package, you can visit my blog HERE! I also teamed up w/my design team & we did a little blog hop for this special cause as well! Just leave a comment on all the blogs in the hop & your name will be entered a total of "10" times for an opportunity to win all of this!!! All I ask, is if you all can be patient & just check throughout the day because alot of us had issues w/blogger & most of my designers will have their posts up by the end of the day! Make sure you leave a comment under the "Race for a cure" blog hop!

A HUGE "Thank you" hug to Sweet Miss Wendy & Miss Monique for this opportunity to be a "Guest Designer" for YOU!!;)

Greetings on a lovely Thursday! How is everyone doing this week? I'm having kind of a mellow week, and taking some time to catch up on life a bit. Ya know - all of that silly, non-scrappin' stuff that is supposed to be important - like paying bills, running errands, getting my hair cut, doctor appointments, etc. It's time to get that nonsense out of the way so I can play with my new toy that just arrived today.... my E2!!!! Woohoo!!

Okie dokie, so you probably guessed where this is headed. Yup, I'm pulling from the archives today. You may not have even seen this before (or have you?). I designed this about 3 years ago for a class when I taught at our local scrap store. It was one of my favorite projects at the time. I just LOVED the paper, and kept wanting to eat it. All in favor of scratch 'n' sniff paper, raise your hand! This layout used the Doodlecharms cartridge - an oldie, but goodie! You can click on the photos to see them larger. And don't forget to leave a comment today for another chance to win the personalized Gypsy Tote!!

Summer Blast Layout: Doodlecharms shapes within the squares are all cut at 2". The flower behind the title is 4 1/2". Colored squares are 3x3, and are textured with the Cuttlebug. I used the Divine Swirls and Swiss Dots embossing folders. White frames behind squares are 3 ¼ x 3 ¼. Assemble squares, then punch a hole through the top and bottom for those on page 1, and through the sides for those on page 2. Then weave ribbon through the holes. Layers of photo mat on Page 1 – sizes are as follows: Outer white mat is 6 ½ x 7 ¼, Bright Green mat is 6 ¼ x 7, Fruity mat is 5 ¾ x 6, Gold mat is 4 x 4, intended to hold picture that is 3 ½ x 3 ½. Page 2 mat sizes are as follows: Outer white mat is 6 ¾ x 11 ¼, Bright Green mat is 6 ½ x 11, Fruity mat is 6 x 10, Gold mat is 4 ¼ x 6 ¼, intended to hold picture that is 3 ¾ x 5 ¾. You may also opt to add a journal box to the portion of the Fruity mat on this Page 2. A tag journal box is always adorable. You'll also use (4) Green patterned border strips, which measure 1 ½ x 12, and (4) Pink border strips behind those, which meausre 2 x 12. Summer Blast title was created with the Design Studio Software, using the Cuttin' Up font.

Dragonfly card: Dragonfly and tag are from Doodlecharms. The dragonfly was cut at 2", and the circle tag layers were cut at 4". White card base is 5x7. Pink Bling background is 4 ¾ x 6 ¾. Green Floral Glitter background is 4 ½ x 6 ½. After you cut all of the pieces for the dragonfly, glue the Pink Bling body on top of the Green Floral dragonfly, and then glue this Green Floral dragonfly onto the Peachy Bling shadow, but only use one strip of adhesive under the body – don't glue down those wings! Now adhere the yellow circle tag onto the white circle tag, lining up the tops with the holes in them. Attach dragonfly at an angle, and then lift his little green wings up to give him some dimension. Put green and pink ribbon together, fold it, and loop it through from back to front. The word “shine” was cut using the Cricut Design Studio Software, with the Cursive 101 cartridge. If you lose the dot for the “i”, you can always use a fun rhinestone for even more bling.

Thanks for stopping by today. And be sure to check in tomorrow, as we will have another very talented Guest Designer sharing a project with you.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!! First off, I want to show you this week's new blog candy. The winner this week will receive a custom-embroidered Gypsy tote bag! These fabulous bags are embroidered by my friend Myrel France, who does such fantastic work. Isn't that font too cute? And check out that Cricut green!! To enter, just leave a comment on today's post, and then come back each day during the week to leave a comment on each day's post. If you'd like to order your own Gypsy tote bag, you can just email Myrel directly at myrelf@aol.com. Thanks, Myrel for sponsoring this week's giveaway!!

This Gypsy bag is has a double handle, and is plenty spacious.

Check that out - I've got my Gypsy in there, along with my wallet and sunglasses case, and there's still room.

And for today's project, I want to share a card that Nana Susan made. She used the Stamping cartridge to cut "Hello" at 1 inch in pink and green. Btw, I think that the Stamping cartridge is one of the very BEST cartridges for card makers - it is incredibly useful with some great images and a perfect variety of sentiments.

The paper is from Stampin' Up, and the flowers were hand-cut from the paper and then punched with a Martha Stewart Starburst punch. Susan distressed the flowers by rolling the edges in water and bending up randomly. The ribbon is also from Stampin' Up.

Soft colors with a distressed finish. So beautiful and feminine.

The punched out middle and threaded buttons add a unique touch.

The inside of the card is simple, yet perfectly coordinating.

Check back later today as I will be announcing the two winners of the 3 month Cricut Circle membership!!

Welcome to a brand new week. I hope everyone had a Happy Mom's Day! I'm thinking maybe you are all enjoying the bonus giveaway I've got going on, because there's a bunch of comments on yesterday's post! And if this is the first time you're reading about it, I'm giving away TWO 3-month memberships to the Cricut Circle. To enter, just leave a comment on today's post - and one on yesterday's as well. I will draw the winners from the pool of yesterday's and today's comments only, and will announce the winners sometime Tuesday. Plus Tuesday there will be a brand new giveaway - woohoo!

Ok, since I already shared my only weekend craftiness with you on Saturday (the Hope and Courage Cards), I'm going to take today to just share a few pics of the Race for the Cure 5k walk that we participated in on Saturday morning. 25,000 people came out to help fight the good fight against breast cancer, and I truly enjoyed the spirit of togetherness and a common goal. Here are a few pics of the big day...

Team Monique had about 72 members, including 5 survivors! We raised about $7625 and counting.

About Me

Monique Griffith

Rocklin, CA, United States

The Monique Griffith Design Team consists of 4 Cricut Designers: Monique, Wendy Lawrence, Susan Rees and Becca Rees. We specialize in making Cricut Project Kits that you can make on your own with your Cricut, learning more about your bug in the process. You just need your Cricut Expression, the required cartridge(s), and a few basic tools. The directions come with a Cricut Cut Chart that shows you line by line exactly what you'll need to cut on your machine, with all of the settings for each cut. There are also well-organized written instructions and color photographs. We pride ourselves on our detailed designs, and on teaching others how to most effectively design with the Cricut. Currently, we have have downloadable directions on sale for only $5, and there are over 50 projects to choose from.